University of South Florida to collect statewide human trafficking data
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios
University of South Florida researchers are tasked with figuring out how prevalent human trafficking is across the state.
Driving the news: Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law last week mandating law enforcement and anti-trafficking advocates around Florida to report data to USF's Trafficking in Persons (TIP) - Risk to Resilience Research Lab.
- The bill also strengthens penalties for convicted traffickers.
Why it matters: It's unclear what the rate of human trafficking — specifically sex trafficking — actually is in Florida right now because the data is siloed by agency, Shelly Wagers, a USF professor of criminology and TIP Lab researcher, told Axios.
- State officials don't have a solid baseline like a prevalence rate for how frequently human trafficking happens or who it happens to, which makes it difficult to develop effective prevention programs and policies, Wagers said.
Between the lines: The state's data is currently spread across hotline reports, law enforcement charges, interventions from the Department of Children and Families, and Department of Health documentation for people seeking treatments and services, Wagers said.
- And what some organizations consider a victim of human trafficking isn't consistent across the board.
What's happening: The law directs USF to help merge the data into a more comprehensive analysis to better determine the number of human trafficking victims in Florida and what parts of the state have the highest concentrations.
- The lab can then analyze the characteristics of people being trafficked like age, gender, and how victims are moved around.
- Differences in how reports classify victims, and between consensual sex work and sex trafficking, will be noted, Wagers said.
What they're saying: Sex Worker Outreach Project of Tampa Bay advocate Brie Daniels said that while the state's search for more accurate data is a start, she doesn't trust that it can be truly accurate while police still target consensual sex workers.
- "Because they have excluded consensual sex workers from the talk they have a skewed version of what's happening," Daniels said. "It's all one-sided information."